BHM: The South's 1st Sit-In...and It Wasn't Greensboro

The other day, I was engaged in a conversation regarding the Holocaust and who was to blame for the atrocity, why people didn't band together against Hitler and his Nazi Regime, why others didn't do more to help the Jewish community, etc. Some resentment towards Germans (even to this day) was expressed. During the time I was taking my Third Reich/Holocaust class in college, I, too, expressed these same questions. The fact that many people did not help the Jewish community more angered me. But when you study history, you have to keep a historical perspective of the past.
To be sure, Hitler was a monster. But he did not force the Germans to hate the Jews. Germany had a long history of anti-Semitism. Hitler simply channeled a hatred that was already there and used it to take over the country. Another thing we need to consider is the fact that the Jews were not only hated in Germany, but across all of Europe as well. The French, for example, surprised the Germans in the summer of 1940 by taking the lead in gathering up French Jews for deportation to the East. Anti-Semitism even existed in the United States! This hatred also existed in religion. The Jews down through history (and even today) were blamed by the Christian Church for allowing the death of Christ when the Roman Governor asked them who should go free? Christ or the thief Barabbas. How many times have we heard the exclamation: They killed Jesus!...which to me is really aggravating.
Anothing fact we have to consider is that Germany in the 1920s and 30s was a real mess economically. Their depression was worse than the depression we experienced. And Hitler used this situation to use the Jews as the perfect scapegoat because the bad economy had not affected the Jewish community the way it had affected the rest of Germany. The Jews owned most of the business and they were the doctors, the lawyers, and the people with the most financially. These were desperate times for Germans and they were ready to believe anything...even Hitler's ideology. When the extermination of Jews began, there were Germans who did not agree with what the Nazi Regime was doing. For those in the military that found out and hated what was happening, they could do little to help as the Gestapo and the SS would arrest them for treason for speaking against the Jewish problem (as it was referred to). Also, the extermination of Jews was the Regime's dirty little secret. Most of the general population did not know of the extermination and many only heard rumors.
Then you have the religious element. It's widely known that Pope Pius XII's actions during the Holocaust remain controversial. For much of WWII, he was indifferent and remained silent while Jews were being sent to concentration camps and being tortured. He refused pleas for help on the grounds of neutrality. Granted, he sheltered a small number of Jews and spoke to a few officials, encouraging them to help the Jews (which is why Pope Benny signed a decree declaring Pius XII as "venerable," which is the first step toward canonization), but historians point out that any support Pius XII did give the Jews came AFTER 1943, once he was informed that the allies would be victorious. So any intervention by this pontiff was based on practical advantage rather than moral inclination.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that we cannot judge a whole country by the past actions of a few. The past is there for us to learn lessons from so as not to repeat the same mistakes. It would be senseless to hate a group of people for the actions of their ancestors...just like it would be senseless if I begin to hate Anglos for the way they treated the Native Americans and other minorities or all Catholics for the way Catholic missions exploited and abused the Native Americans or all heterosexuals for the bigoted perceptions of some heterosexuals of homosexuals or all religious people for the way some religious people look down upon me simply because I do not subscribe to their basic religious beliefs, i.e. a divine being, divine intervention). The other point is this: It would be unfair of us to automatically assume that, if we had lived in Germany during the time of the Holocaust, we would have been morally inclined to help the Jews. We don't know that. We'd like to think that we would have had the courage and resolve to do that...to help even if it meant our lives or the lives of our loved ones. In studying history, I have learned that not everything is cut'n'dry. To be sure, what happened to the Jews was horrific and goes beyond comprehension. But imagine yourself in Germany, and you have given refuge to a Jewish person and is hiding in your barn or whatever, and you're caught, the Gestapo has a gun to your 3-year-old daughter's head, and they are demanding to know where you have hidden the Jew, and if you don't, your child is going to get shot in the head before your eyes. What are you going to do? The child can't comprehend the moral dilemma you're being faced with. As far as the child is concerned, you're having to choose between her and the stranger hidden in the barn. What are you going to do? You cannot state with solid conviction what you would have done in a tense situation like that...anymore than you can say that you would have had the guts enough to ride a bus in the South as a Freedom Rider and risk being beaten senseless with an iron pipe or baseball bat.
For me, since I'm wanting to pursue a career dealing with the study of history, I know that to be a good historian, I cannot make moral judgments. In fact, it's not the historian's job to make moral judgments. My job is to help people or students understand a world that is different in subtle but crucial ways from our own. And if we are to study history and analyze it, we cannot allow ourselves to slide over into that role because we will impose the values of the present on a past that may quack like a duck but still is not a duck.

Enough of the soapbox talk and on with the BHM lesson--
The following video is about the civil rights battle that took place in Miami, Florida, and the Turkel family, who stood up for what was right at a time when it was unpopular to do so. Would you have done the same?